The carcases are as good as any other. You can pimp the doors up with other companies products.

The space behind is solved by pulling them out and putting a deeper worktop on.

Agree, did exactly this in our old house. Hinges, shelves etc were fine for the 10 years we used the kitchen. We may just have been lucky but oth IKEA can't really afford to make shit kitchens, according to my architect friend.